As computer technology improves, computer systems with more powerful processor(s) and larger storage unit(s) become more commonplace. With this growth in processing power and storage size, implementation of digital imaging technology also becomes more practical. For example, higher resolution images may be processed in a shorter time period.
Digital images of a scene may be directly acquired (e.g., by a digital camera) or conventionally taken by a film-based camera and later digitized (e.g., by a scanner). Once an image is in digital format, it may be digitally manipulated. Often, a first step in digital image processing involves the selection of certain portions of a scene. Digital techniques (such as filtering, copying, and pasting) may then be applied to the selected portion(s).
Currently, a number of techniques are used to extract a foreground from a scene with varying degrees of user involvement. The extracted foreground can, however, include artifacts and/or color bleeding from the background. According, the current foreground extraction techniques generally fail to provide a reasonably smooth border for the extracted foreground, without significant user interaction.
As such, more efficient and improved smooth extraction of a portion of a scene is desired, e.g., without generating artifacts and/or color bleeding from the background.